A number of significant landmarks could be reached in Welsh rugby in the months ahead, including the possibility of Alun Wyn Jones setting a world record and Dan Biggar rewriting the Guinness PRO12 record books.

MARK ORDERS assesses which players might have special cause for celebration in season 2017-18.

1. Dan Biggar becoming the Guinness PRO12’s all-time top scorer

There’s nothing guaranteed.

Heading into the season on 1471 points, Biggar needs 112 to hoist his tally past Dan Parks’s league best of 1582.

It may not sound much to a man of Biggar’s deadly accuracy with the boot — heck, this is a bloke who once amassed more than 700 league points over three seasons in the league — but the times they have been a changin’ for the Ospreys fly-half.

Dan Biggar

Last season, on a dual contract and with Sam Davies also on hand as a goal-kicker, he managed just 58 points in the PRO12.

The previous term he supplied 78.

There is also the point that he looks set to leave for Northampton at the end of the season, so there are no guarantees that tight selection calls will go in his favour.

The other side of the coin is that Biggar remains a top-quality marksman who is capable of racing to a points century before Bonfire night is done and dusted, as he did in season 2011-12, a year when he compiled a mountainous 329 in all competitions.

Verdict: It is going to be tight, especially with Wales vying for Biggar’s attention. Throw in a late start to the season and the challenge he faces is a big one. He will need to take every chance that comes his way. Maybe with enough opportunities he will get there. Just.

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2. Jamie Roberts completing 100 caps for Wales

Jamie Roberts (Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency)

So much depends on Warren Gatland’s thinking.

The 93-cap Roberts has been one of the Kiwi’s favourites over the years. Indeed, some would argue he, more than any other player, has symbolised the way Wales have played for much of the time since 2008, with power and muscularity, perhaps at the expense of great subtlety.

Last season he found himself benched at Test level for the first time in seven years, and he spent the entire Six Nations as a replacement.

He is 31 in November and all good things come to an end, but he did an outstanding job as Wales captain at the head of a young side this summer.

Robin McBryde will doubtless submit a positive report of Roberts’s efforts to Gatland.

If ever someone deserved to reach his century it is the big man, who has made so many hard yards for his country.

Gatland isn’t given to sentiment and nor should he be, but it would take a hard heart not to want Roberts to win the seven more caps he needs to make it over the line.

Verdict: Scott Williams and Jonathan Davies were Rob Howley’s front-line centres last term and the probablity is the Scarlets pairing will remain the favoured duo as Wales try to expand their game. If Roberts is to reach his 100 it may have to be as a replacement, picking up caps here and there. Nothing is certain, then, but he may just make it.

3. Alun Wyn Jones setting a Test appearance world record for a second row

Alun Wyn Jones talks to media

He needs to figure in nine more Tests to overtake Victor Matfield as the most-capped lock of all time.

It is unlikely that Jones will play in all four of Wales’s autumn series matches — everyone tends to get a weekend off in November, except hard-pressed scribes (cue the small violin) — and so even if he does feature in every round of Six Nations matches the probability is he will still not quite be there.

There is a tour of Argentina scheduled for next summer and if he goes on that he may erase Matfield’s name for the record books.

Verdict : Jones will surely break big Victor’s record of 127 caps, but it will be touch and go whether he does it in 2017-18.

7. Alex Cuthbert reaching his half-century of caps

It is hard to imagine any Welsh player has been more maligned than Alex Cuthbert.

He has taken a fearful kicking on social media and the mainstream press haven’t exactly applauded his every effort, either.

Undoubtedly, his form for much of last season was poor; indeed, for a number of years he has looked a shadow of the player he was when he broke into the Wales side.

But he has slowly been rebuilding his game, with his reward coming in the shape of a recall to the national squad for the southern hemisphere tour.

He justified his selection with a picture-book try against Tonga before injury did for him and he had to return home.

The challenge for the 6ft 6in wing in the months ahead will be to continue to improve.

The emergence of Steff Evans and Keelan Giles has given Wales extra options out wide, while Hallam Amos will be fit in the new campaign and George North will want to prove a point after his disappointing Lions tour, while Liam Williams and Leigh Halfpenny seem likely to nail down two of the three Wales back-three spots.

Cuthbert faces an immense task just to get into the national squad, then.

But at his very best — and that is something we haven’t seen enough in recent seasons — he could be an option for Gatland.

Four more caps will give him 50 for Wales.

If he gets there, he will have done so the hard way and surely there will be cheers all round, which would be something of a novelty for the 27-year-old.

Verdict : Again, injuries will go a long way to determining whether there is cause for celebration here, but before he can think about playing for Wales this autumn, Cuthbert needs to consistently show up well for Cardiff Blues.